The use of many electronic devices capable of searching databases has become widespread. For example, a television set-top box used as a multi-media device often has the capability of searching an electronic program guide (EPG) based on a textual input. Often times the searches require large strings of text to be input by the user. The shift of focus across the screen takes time for motor, visual, cognitive processing. This time-consuming process may lead to input error. Therefore a need exists for a method and apparatus for textual searching of databases on electronic devices that is robust to input errors and minimizes the amount of input efforts required from a user.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. It will further be appreciated that certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. Those skilled in the art will further recognize that references to specific implementation embodiments such as “circuitry” may equally be accomplished via replacement with software instruction executions either on general purpose computing apparatus (e.g., CPU) or specialized processing apparatus (e.g., DSP). It will also be understood that the terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.